Bad Rabbits is an American band from Boston, Massachusetts, founded in September 2007. The band consists of Fredua Boakye, Sheel Davé, Salim Akram, Graham Masser, and Santiago Araujo. All five members of the band originally played in the Boston-based band The Eclectic Collective, which in 2007 they reworked and renamed Bad Rabbits. The band released a demo in 2008 entitled The Bad EP which was followed up by their debut EP, Stick Up Kids, in December 2009. Their first album American Love was released on May 14, 2013, and on July 19, 2014, Bad Rabbits released Dusted – an acoustic EP. They have won four Boston Music Awards, including Pop/R&B Live Artist of the Year in 2014. Bad Rabbits also won the 2010 Phoenix Music Poll Award for Most Downloaded Band. From 2007 to 2010, they performed as the backing band for rapper Slick Rick. They have been a part of five national tours, including the 2011 and 2014 Vans Warped Tour, the 2013 Don Broco Priorities UK tour, the 2014 Allen Stone US Tour and their own UK tour in 2014.
Early history
The five members of Bad Rabbits first came together in 2002 while attending Northeastern University and Audio Institute in Boston, MA. Boakye and Akram were performing as a duo, Davé was a member of experimental metal band Irepress, and Araujo was playing in a jam/rock band with Masser. A mutual friend introduced Masser and Araujo to Davé at the YMCA dormitory on Northeastern's campus. The group performed their first show as The Eclectic Collective on January 16, 2003, at in Cambridge. There were various lineup changes which primarily included Akram, Boakye, Davé, Araujo, Masser, RP Thompson, Geoff “DJ Special Blend” Ford, as well as singer Noni Kai on vocals, trumpet player and rapper Peter “Afrodzak” Shungu, and saxophonist Robert Oswald. After two independent album releases and a tour in the Fall of 2007 with artist Gavin Castleton, the group decided to call it quits. Not happy with the direction The Eclectic Collective had taken, the band decided to change its name and overall direction. Bad Rabbits takes its name from one of Gavin Castleton’s songs, which the group performed while on tour with him.
Career
In the fall of 2008, the band self-released a four-song demo titled The Bad EP. The EP contains the song “The Bad”, which became the song now known as “She’s Bad”. In spring 2009, the band entered the studio with producer Jayson Michael Dezuzio to record their debut EP, Stick Up Kids. The album was completed in fall 2009 and released independently that December. The band also entered into a relationship with Boston-based online retailer , who distributed and promoted the album through their website. A remix compilation of the Stick Up Kids EP was released in the fall; it included remixes from Clinton Sparks, Crookers, Roxy Cottontail, Hot Pink Delorean, and Alex Suarez. Tracks on this release include "Booties", "Neverland", "Stick Up Kids", "Girl I'm Like Damn!", "She's Bad", "Advantage Me" and "Can't Back Down". On May 14, 2013, the album American Love was released. It reached #1 on the iTunes R&B album chart and #35 iTunes album chart. The album also reached #10 on the Billboard Heatseeker Chart, #12 BillboardR&B Albums and #29 on the Billboard Hip-Hop/R&B Album Chart. The first single from American Love, "We Can Roll", is a one-sided 7" vinyl single, with the iconic "BR" logo hand-printed onto the blank B-side. Each copy came housed in a jacket that was hand screen printed with a 3D spot glitter and each record was individually numbered. The band released three more albums; an acoustic album titled Dusted and the albums American Nightmare and Mimi. In 2020, the band will celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Stick Up Kids with shows in Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
